Classical Music This Month – January 2016

January is a busy, exciting orchestral music month at Artis—Naples, with four nights of Masterworks concerts, our first Pops concerts of the season, two Visiting Orchestras, two Sypert Salon concerts, two nights of Around Town concerts plus performances with Paul Taylor Dance Company, Renée Fleming and Kristin Chenoweth. We’ve made a handy guide to make sure you don’t miss a moment of your favorite music.

NAPLES PHILHARMONIC CONCERTS

The Sypert Salon series returns for the first concert of the New Year on the afternoon of January 3 with a program that includes music from Mozart, Haydn and Paganini. The concert is repeated on January 5.

Sharon and Timothy Ubben Music Director Andrey Boreyko leads the Naples Philharmonic in its first Masterworks of 2016 that same week, with concerts on January 7 and 9. The performance has a decidedly Scandinavian slant with music from contemporary Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, legendary Danish composer Nielsen’s Violin Concerto with guest artist Baiba Skride and finishing with Sibelius’ sublime Symphony No. 2.

Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly kicks off the Pops Series from January 12-16 with a concert featuring musical polymaths Time for Three that runs the gamut from Bach to the Beatles. Former Houston Symphony music director Hans Graff conducts the Naples Philharmonic’s fifth Masterworks concert of the season on January 22-23. The highlight is Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which will feature the women of the Naples Philharmonic Chorus and actress Maureen Thomas. The concert also includes Weber’s Oberon Overture and pianist Ingrid Fliter performing Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D.

Finally, while Motown The Musical is in Hayes Hall, the orchestra and assistant conductor Yaniv Segal hit the road with concerts featuring principal clarinet Paul Votapek performing a concerto arrangement of the Brahms Clarinet Sonata No. 2, plus Schubert’s Symphony No. 4. The performances are January 28 in Bonita Springs and January 29 on Marco Island.

VISITING ORCHESTRAS

While much of the buzz surrounding this season’s Visiting Orchestra Series at Artis—Naples is focused on the beginning of a three-year residency of the Vienna Philharmonic, the series also features two of North America’s finest classical ensembles— the Cleveland Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In our first full-orchestra concert of the new year, conductor Peter Oundjian and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra brings something old (Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, featuring soloist Jan Lisiecki), something new (Wondrous Light by contemporary Canadian composer John Estacio) and a classical favorite (Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade) to Hayes Hall on January 5.

Then on January 24, the Cleveland Orchestra performs a concert heavy on Tchaikovsky, with the famed Russian conductor’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy and Symphony No. 1 “Winter Dreams” bookending the evening. Piano virtuoso Leif Ove Andsnes takes the starring role in Schumann’s Piano Concerto.

BALLET AND SPECIAL GUESTS

The legendary choreographer Paul Taylor brings his eponymous dance company to Naples for the first time on January 3. See three of his famous works—Equinox, Polaris and Esplanade—with the Naples Philharmonic performing works from Bach, Brahms and conductor Donald York.

A week later on January 10, the orchestra provides the base over which Broadway superstar Kristin Chenoweth sets her soaring vocals on some of the most well-known songs from the Great White Way. And on January 19, one of the greatest sopranos of her generation, Renée Fleming, joins the orchestra conducted by Hans Graf.

For details on all these concerts and the rest of January’s calendar, go to artisnaples.org/calendar.